


The Bond That Breaks and Mends On Its Own

by maridoll



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, cross-posted with tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-24 06:45:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6145020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maridoll/pseuds/maridoll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[aokuro, remastered canon with an original ending.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Those words ran through his veins, filled his every waking thought not currently on the game, on the play at present. _Does this remind you of your middle school days?_  
If only he knew. This was nothing, no, nothing at all. Compared to when he would step out and play, if he even bothered to show, this wasn’t even related to that matter at all. Because once _he_ got here, once they started playing, this time on opposing sides, the reality would fully set in.  
The overflow of reminder would almost be painful to bear.

Tetsu’s heart was racing as he watched the one person he feared to see the most walk onto the court. Cold steel eyes flicked over to match his and he blinked away, turning his head slightly. Still, that didn’t stop Aomine from walking right up to him in the end.  
“Yo, Tetsu. It’s good to see you again.”  
Slight glance back. Oh. That was a little much. He wished Daiki would just smile for real.  
“Was wondering what you’d think, when this moment came”, Aomine continued. “I like it. You look ready to fight.”  
He turned his head, gave him his full attention for a spare moment. “Of course. I made a promise to someone, after all . .” He hesitated, a brief second lost in thought, before risking it and snapping his head up. But before he could speak, he was interrupted.  
“Heh. Well I guess I understand what you’re saying. But I won’t believe it until you show me for real.” He glanced away, came back with his eyes blazing. “Say what you want, but _after_ you’ve beaten me.”  
And in that moment he knew. Daiki didn’t want to hear his words.  
He wouldn’t have put it to the tune of a challenge otherwise.  
Tetsu felt himself blink, the movement too second-nature for him to notice much. His vision was the same before and after, no change present. Daiki, with his cunning smirk, still loomed over him. He had a lingering fear of what the outcome would be, but he wanted to snap the boy out of it so badly that he still responded, still chose to answer and he hope his choice of word was so sincere that it made him _flinch_.  
“Yes.”  
He said it, and looked away once more, and Aomine turned and pranced away, not even giving his response a thought, long legs carrying him quickly to his teammates. His new teammates.  
It stung.

-  
“Please, please let me stay in for the whole second half!”

_Playing against Aominecchi without Kurokocchi is just too hard._

I made a promise and I intend to keep it. Not just for her sake, more so mine than anything. More so for my own reassurance. That he can go back to smiling that real smile.

_Kuroko, you’ll sit out for the third quarter. Our battle begins in the fourth!_

That’s too late, don’t you know?

That’s too late.

-  
“The only one who can beat me is me.”  
He swore he heard him say it, whether he was all the way across the court, whether he couldn’t see his lips or yes, he could just sense it. That insufferable phrase. One that crushed his middle school dreams, spirit, everything. The one he hated.  
And then, Aomine spoke directly to him.  
“This isn’t your basketball, is it, now?”  
Blue eyes bore into the back of Touou's number five, not brave enough to form a response. And then he was faced directly with the problem as he walked over on the way back to position, stopped for a lingering second to tip his head Tetsu’s way.  
“Tetsu, come on out. We’re settling this.”  
_Too late. Too late too late too late. It’s been settled. It’s been decided, can’t you see?_  
Fate was not on his side today.  
“Kuroko.”  
“Yes. I’ve had more than enough time. I’m ready.”  
He stood and his shoes squeaked on the floor from the effort. His gaze met Aomine’s for a few moments before he broke it off, no longer able to bear it. He would try. He had to try. He always had to try, for him.

-  
_It really is different when Tetsu’s playing._

-  
“You haven’t changed since back then, you know?”  
He paused in his run back, careful not to betray any emotions.  
“Really.”  
Ah, but it was hard. It stung.  
“Not at all.”  
Words, piercing straight through his heart.  
A turn, another lingering stare, one where two different shades of blue meet. “I’m disappointed.”  
A simple statement that ripped through his every core.  
“You can’t expect to beat me with this.”  
And that’s when he got him. That sewed him right back up, patched him good as able so he could say what was needed. He held Daiki’s gaze this time.  
“I do. This is _my_ basketball.” _And no matter what, I’ll show you it’s the right way._

-  
The ball flew toward him, and with a quick step backward, he thrust his arm forward, connecting his hand to the ball with a force enough to make his ears ring should it have hit a close-by wall or other object.  
It only took a moment for Aomine to reach out and catch it with a single hand, body turned towards Tetsu, eyes seeming to mock him. His arm was still outstretched. Eyes widened. That had just happened. That had-  
“Who do you think has caught your passes the most, hmm?”  
A devastating blow.

-  
_It’s already been decided, Tetsu._  
_Your style of basketball will never win._

-  
Frozen.  
He was stuck on the court, near the center. The score. It had been doubled. They had-No, they hadn’t done that bad; Daiki had just been too good.  
His feet carried him slowly, his downcast figure treading somewhat after his teammates. He had to pass Aomine. Tetsu didn’t miss the way he seemed almost hurt. But he couldn’t imagine why. Because they were too easy an opponent, because it was too boring?  
He didn’t even want to imagine what he himself looked like.

-  
“Worry about Kuroko instead. _Nothing_ he just did worked on Aomine. It must have been pretty psychologically damaging.”  
If only they knew.

\--  
“I really thought they’d be stronger. They beat Shutoku, after all. Especially that number eleven, Kuroko, was it?”  
_Tch. Don’t talk about him. You have no right. You don’t even know him._  
“He was awful at the end. Guess he isn’t anything special.”  
_Shut up shut UP! You don’t know, you don’t_ know.  
“He should’ve given up sooner.”  
He moved on his own, not registering any movements until his name was being shouted. Everything was fuzzy, ringing. There was a crowd around him, made up of others wearing Touou uniforms. He had ahold of someone, oh, the one who was talking about Tetsu. That was right.  
“For someone who didn’t play, you sure have a big _mouth_. Shut up already.”  
“Hey, Aomine, just let him go.”  
It took effort. When he did finally release the guy, his vision was still fuzzy from rage. He left, walked right out.  
They didn’t know Tetsu like he did.

-  
“I think . . this is out limit.”  
The words he never wanted to hear.  
“I don’t think we can win just by working together.”  
Oh God. It was happening again, this was happening again, and why? Why him? Why did it always have to be him?  
The door shut but Tetsu didn’t hear it, too caught up in a past memory.  
_I just can’t. No more. Sorry._  
_The_ only _one who can beat me . . . is me._  
The cycle was repeating itself. He would never have his own light, nor would he ever be his own light, be self-sufficient. He was forever destined to find the perfect being and have them turn away from him in the end.  
Cobalt eyes and an unsmiling face entered his mind.  
He put his face in his hands.  
Would it ever stop?

-  
The ball collided with his hands and he gripped it tightly, moving it to the side to better enable his drive. Kuroko’s teeth were gritted as he looked straight ahead, but the line parted slightly at the presence of who had stepped in front of him.  
Aomine.  
He lets the shock get to him for a single moment, lets their eyes lock for a second, before regaining focus and dipping to the right, putting his drive into motion.  
In an instant the ball is knocked out of his hands, Aomine rounding and grabbing it, making a dash for the other side of the court. He scores quickly, but it wasn’t that that had him concerned.  
His eyes had been closed.  
He had read his movements based purely on instinct.  
“Tetsu.”  
His head shot up.  
“Shadows don’t exist without light. It doesn’t work the other way.” He comes closer, looming over Tetsu’s form, causing the other to look up. “A shadow cannot defeat the light.”  
He felt his next breath go back down his throat, stuck there for several moments. Those words were pinpricks stabbing right through his heart.  
Daiki walks around him, never casting him a second glance. He was done.  
Tetsu was not.  
They set up for a new play.  
“Kuroko!”  
Tetsu bent his legs, got into a stance for a pass. Unbeknownst to him, there was panic and lots of movement on the bench, their pleas to not lost on his deaf ears.  
His teeth were slammed against each other, gritted tighter than they had been before, blue eyes wild.  
His arm shot back as the ball passed in front of him. In front, Daiki looked over his shoulder to see what the commotion was about, freezing once he saw.  
Kuroko spun his hand forward and drilled it into the basketball, putting all of his hurt, all of his anger, all of his everything into the motion, forcing it forward faster than ever before. He didn’t care that there was no one to pass to. He didn’t care. He just wanted to prove to Daiki that he was _wrong_ , that he _could_ and _would_ do this. That his way was correct.  
Aomine put a hand up and the ball slammed into it, spinning a couple more seconds before dropping to the floor, stationery.  
No one moved.  
Tetsu couldn’t believe it.  
“Did you think it would work again? Try not to disappoint me so much, Tetsu”, Aomine called to him.  
He couldn’t believe it.  
“If this is your answer, let me make this clear.”  
It didn’t work.  
“It’s a useless effort.”  
Just as quickly as he finished, he snatched the ball up and made a run to the goal. When he passed by Tetsu, it seemed to go in slow motion, seemed to take forever for him to just be _gone._  
Tetsu’s breathing was uneven. He felt dizzy.  
He felt empty.

-  
“Kuroko, you’re out.”  
He looked up, the words a shock even though he had been expecting them, and it didn’t take long for them to dull, for his head to dip down, face hidden by the towel thrown over his hair. “Yes”, he murmured.  
As they all became absorbed with talk of game plans, he was lost in his thoughts.  
_“A shadow won’t exist without light.”_  
_The ball was smacked from his hand, driven out by the pure force of instinct, one developed through months and months of training together._  
“Damn it”, he muttered.  
_His next immediate revolt also resulted in failure._  
“Damn.”  
The tears ebbed out, frustration pooling from all sides of his being.  
_“Your efforts are useless.”_  
How was he supposed to save him now?

-  
He flinched as a jacket heavily landed on his head. Upon turning, he saw it was his own, and it had just been Kagami who had given it to him.  
The ace looked away with a pointed face. “You’ll get cold, idiot. Put it on.”  
_Maybe I want to feel cold. Maybe I just want to get sick and be miserable and-_  
“Hey.”  
He stopped in his thoughts, turning to look at Kagami while shrugging the jacket on.  
“What were you thinking about, before I came?”  
_What?_  
“You don’t look like you need any consolence, but surely you had a reason for coming out here.”  
Tetsu’s lips quirked up into a small smile. He turned back to the railing, placing both hands on it. “Do you like basketball?”  
“Huh?”  
“I . . really want to win this game. Not just because of Momoi, what I promised her, but because, really, I just want to see it again.”  
Kagami tipped his head. “See wha-”  
“Aomine _always_ had a smile on his face when he played.” His lips soured. “He really did love basketball. I-” He stopped, sucked in a breath, trying to regain composure. “I’m not looking down on him because of who he is now, I just . . want to see him play with a smile, once again. And I think that, if we win this game, then maybe . . .” He drew in a shaky breath. “Maybe . .”  
A hand landed on his shoulder.  
“Who knows”, Kagami told him, an air of solace around the words. “People aren’t that simple, so who knows if winning will change anything. But, y’know, losing sure won’t do anything.” He looked down to Tetsu, a grin on his face. “We just have to play as hard as we can, to win, I mean.”  
He backs off. “Now, let’s go back inside. We have people waiting on us.”  
Kuroko turned away from the railing slowly, Kagami a few paces ahead of him.  
_Play as hard as we can . ._  
“Yes”, he breathed, the small perk of his lips coming back.

-  
“Aomine has the ball!”  
“What are we going to do?!”  
“Hey Teppei!”  
He didn’t know what he was doing, really. It was stupid, foolish. He could’ve been seriously hurt. All he knew was that he had to stop him from shooting.  
So he moved on instinct.  
Daiki’s eyes widened as he saw the figure on the edge of his left side, was a little slow in switching the ball over to his other hand, in moving altogether. He had come up so fast, even though Daiki knew his movements were unpredictable.  
His shoulder slammed into Tetsu’s forehead, knocking back with a heavy force. He landed on the floor harshly, Aomine himself barely managing to regain his footing.  
A whistle split the air.  
“Black five, charging!”  
He could barely hear it. He stood frozen. What had he just done?  
Tetsu picked himself up, wincing as he did so. That really did hurt. But now that he had done it, he felt he had something to say.  
“If you can predict my movements, shouldn’t the opposite be true? We both spent that time together.” He put one knee under himself, not ready to apply weight. He let the weight of his next words fill that void instead.  
“It was you and I and _our_ basketball, Daiki.”

-  
Was it a challenging look?  
It looked like a smile.  
In the zone or not, it really looked like he was smiling to Tetsu.  
But, that couldn’t be right.  
. . Could it?

-  
The ball hit the back of the basket, fluttered the strings below, and bounced back down to the waiting players below.  
Kagami captured the ball in one hand and drove it forward, hard, to the shock of everyone. It didn’t take long for Aomine to jump up and counter, pushing the ball in the opposite direction. A standstill.  
That’s when Tetsu took off.  
The ball curved off path and bounced past all the players, heading towards Touou’s side of the court.  
It bounced just past Tetsu and he ran now with a vengeance, pushing his legs to go _faster, faster!_  
Daiki was still falling, his feet had yet to touch the ground, and he caught the whole thing with wide eyes. He realized, right then, that Tetsu had set off early.  
Kuroko whipped around and jumped back, the ball still flying through the air, but now right in front of him.  
He just wanted to see it again.  
If he had to break him to do it, so be it.  
Tetsu, from all the way across the court, locked eyes with Daiki. He locked eyes with him and shouted Kagami’s name instead. And then he passed him the ball, using the superspeed Ignite Pass to do it.  
And the ball came racing towards the two aces.  
Aomine jumped at the same time as Kagami, but the final blow had already been dealt. It had been too much for him to handle.  
So when Kagami grabbed the ball, it was only natural that he slam it into the basket without any resistance.

-  
“I lost. I . .”  
Tetsu could hardly believe what he was seeing.  
He had his eyes open. For the first time in nearly two years, Aomine truly had his eyes open. He was digesting the weight of a loss with them right now. Open. Alight with emotion in its rawest form.  
“I see . .”  
“Line up!”  
He wanted to hear more. Wanted to look more. Wanted to see him breaking out of the shell he had hardened over time, wanted to really see Daiki once again.  
But with the blowing of the whistle, his mind signified the end. It resisted the urges of his heart to _look_ and _be aware_ and _see_ and instead enabled him to rest.  
His eyes shut and he swayed heavily before collapsing. Before he could get very far, though, Kagami was there to support him. His eyelids were heavy, but he still managed to hold them open just a bit. Before he could reply to his friend’s concerned question, another voice, suspiciously closer now, cut in.  
“Sheesh. Even with support, you can hardly stand.”  
He felt himself slipping from consciousness. That had been Aomine’s voice. He had been talking to him. He wanted to talk with Daiki more. He wanted to be the one to finally shatter that shell once and for all. But he was so tired, so out of it.  
“Let’s play again; I’ll take you on!”  
Kagami’s voice . .  
“Tsk. Idiot. You’re on.”  
And . .  
He forced his eyes open once more, lifted his head with obvious effort. “Aomine-kun”, he mumbled.  
Daiki’s eyes suddenly became downcast. He lowered his head slightly. “You win, Tetsu”, he whispered, undetected by the two.  
“Can I ask a favor?”  
He perked up slightly, looking over at Tetsu’s sky eyes with his cobalt ones. And then, just then, he did something completely unexpected -and not just because he had just passed out a moment ago- something he hadn’t seen for some time.  
He raised his fist.  
“My fistbump. You still haven’t returned it.”  
“Wh-” Aomine shook his head, bounced back on his toes slightly. “That? Who cares, Tetsu”, he said, obviously bewildered.  
“ _I_ care.”  
He paused, soaked the words in. This . . it was small, but it was something he could do. Something to reforge the bond once again.  
“Okay.” He dropped his shoulders, raised a fist of his own. “Okay.”  
The other’s smile nearly broke his heart. Tetsu was really happy over this? But maybe . . he just had to put himself in Tetsu’s position.  
“Thank you.”  
Their fists connected, and the first strand of the bond appeared out of the dust.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this does end up including the end of s2, as well as the special ova which take place in the middle of the last episode.

He grasped the cell phone in one hand, a finger held precariously over the call button, hovering there, waiting.

The fact that this person was the best shooter didn’t help the predicament he was drawing himself into. 

It was a test and he was slowly managing to rack up enough points to pass. He had dialed in the numbers. Now all he had to do was call, wait to hear his voice, and then, after the question, his answer.

Hopefully, it would be an answer he wanted to hear.

Tetsu finally dropped his finger onto the button.

 

-

His form was near-perfect, standing at a good distance, and he released the ball not knowing what the outcome would be.

It bounced off the front rim and rolled back to his feet. Tetsu picked it up and simply turned to Aomine. “Well?”

“No!” He sighed. “Seriously? Am I supposed to feel anything from that miss? Your shooting is still god-awful.” He slapped a hand to his forehead. “Besides, I never said I would teach you how to shoot.”

“Oh? But why not?”

“There’s something wrong about the winner asking the loser for help, idiot”, he gruffed.

“Ah . .” Tetsu lowered his head slightly.

In turn, Daiki took a seat on the ground, leaned back against a pole. “Y’know, I haven’t slept since then.”

This perked Kuroko up just a bit.

“I . . went home, went through all the routines, then went to lie down. But I couldn’t sleep.”

Tetsu began to slowly lower himself to the ground, gaining interest.

“I was exhausted, but every time I closed my eyes, I relived scenes from the game. I had forgotten how it felt, to lose. It sucks, Tetsu.” He looked up, towards the black sky, no stars to be seen, all of it blinded by the lights of buildings shining in the darkness. “It was an awful night.”

Tetsu was crouched down, gazing wistfully at him. He had felt that feeling many a time. 

“But, I guess that’s the reason why I want to play again so soon.”

Right then, he saw a scene. A nice day, a perfect day, perfect weather, on a court surrounded by green, leafy trees. He was with Aomine. He saw his smile. They were playing a game together.

It went by in a blink, an instant.

He reached forward, slowly. “Aomine . .”

“Aw geez . .” Daiki looked back down, tensed up at Tetsu’s closer-than-before proximity, but shrugged off his coat nonetheless. Tetsu, having been disheartened, dropped his hand. “Talking about it just makes me want to play.”

He stood and Tetsu followed soon after. “Fine. You’re the only one here, so I’ll play with you.”

Tetsu just stared, not sure what to make of it. 

“I . . m telling you . . I’ll teach you how to shoot”, Daiki murmured.

He walked forward, passing Tetsu to the other side of the small court, and placed a hand on his head for a moment.

Tetsu felt frozen. A past memory, all of the Generation of Miracles around an outside court, him and Aomine going head-to-head. A fun time.

A smile formed on his face, lips quirking upward quite easily.

“What? What’s with the smile?”

“It’s just, we used to practice like this a lot, back then.”

Daiki immediately became disgruntled. “Just hurry up and shoot.”

And so he did, the smile still there.

 

-

“Huh? What are you thanking me for?” Aomine shrugged the words off. “I just couldn’t stand how bad you were. Besides . .”  _ Damn Tetsu, I’m the one who should be thanking you. _

“What?”

“It’s nothing!” He turned to leave. “See you. I’ve gotta head out. Satsuki, come on.”

“Oi, Dai-chan, are we really leaving now?”

“Mhmm. Oh.” He turned back just a bit, caught Tetsu’s eyes. “You’d better not lose, Tetsu.”

“Dai-chan! Hurry it up!”

Tetsu let his stiff shoulders relax. He gave a light nod and turned to head off as well. 

“Of course.”

 

-

“Why did  _ I  _ have to come, hmm?”

“Don’t be like that! You were the one that cancelled the shopping trip. This is how you repay me.” Momoi motioned towards the court. “Just chill and watch some, okay? It’ll go by-” She stopped upon seeing the scoreboard.

Eighteen to zero.

“Whoops, looks like they’re in trouble.”

Even though he had said the words, their tone of indifference was false. Inside, he was tensed.

_ Don’t lose, Tetsu. _

 

-

“Did you actually get worse?”

“Well . .” Kuroko paused, passed him the ball. “How do you shoot?”

Daiki simply tossed the ball up with one hand. It landed in the net easily. “Like that.”

“Tch.” Kuroko shook his head with mild laughter. “It’s gonna take a bit more explaining than that.”

“Oh? . . Maybe you should shoot like you’re passing.”

“But passing and shooting are too different. When I pass, I use the palm of my hand.”

_ Hmm . .  _ “Try it once more.”

“Huh?”

“Push on the ball with your palm so it’s easier to shoot.”

After that, making shots was a breeze.

 

-

“Amazing. So this is the result of that training?”

“No.”

Momoi turned abruptly, caught off-guard. “What?”

“I just taught him to shoot his own way. When he passes, he takes a certain form. I just made him use that form when he shoots, too. Tetsu turned it into a special kind of technique all on his own.”

“Wow. That’s . .”

_ Incredible? Just like him? I know. Tetsu’s amazing. _

 

-

It was Kagami, going up against Hayama, everything still lightning fast. If you blinked you missed several motions, several steps in the hunger-paced dance. Everyone wanted to win.

Hayama goes into a double-clutch form and Hyuga is suddenly in his face, slamming the ball off-kilter with a greedy force. It shoots off the court but the weight of it all is heavy on everyone’s mind. The shot had been blocked. 

A moment later, Daiki’s blood ran cold. 

He sat still, stiff as a rock, for a solid second before he turned his head to the side, eyes closing in an attempt to no longer be watching as he laughed. All around him, the words of endless fans described the plays enough for him to afford to do so.

Momoi looked over, strands of her hair falling from behind her ear as she leaned forward in shock. “D-Dai-chan . . ?”

He was in a full laugh now, shaking his head in mock denial, a palm pressed to his forehead. “That’s what it was.” He barked out a huff of laughter. “I see . . I see now.”

Momoi’s hands landed on his shoulder, lightly shaking it. “Dai-chan. Dai-chan, are you okay?”

He split his fingers so that he had a view of the court when his eyes pealed open. Kagami drove past Akashi and he felt his emotions riling up again. Suddenly he couldn’t laugh anymore. This match was painful to watch. All of Seirin moving in perfect sync to the beat of this new Zone, this deeper Zone, the one he could never reach . . .

He felt like his throat was seized by a pair of strong hands, forcing the walls closed, making if difficult to breathe. 

“It never opened because I . . threw it all out, back then.”

Momoi felt her grip go lax, her hands eventually falling back into her lap. His voice was barely above a whisper now. “You mean the Zone door, right?” she mouthed. 

_ It wasn’t a gatekeeper it was  _ never _ a gatekeeper. It was only . . _

“You all along, huh?”

Warm tracks trailed down his cheeks, marred by tears that dripped from dark, cobalt eyes. It didn’t take long for the liquid to dry, to become cold and sticky, a harsh reminder of its presence. He dropped his hand, let out a shuttering breath. “Oh Tetsu . .”

 

-

“Oi, nice pass, Tetsu!”

“Yeah? Thank you.”

They kinda swung together, in that moment, facing the other at an off angle. Both with smiles on their faces, they let their fists collide. Then out of nowhere, Daiki barreled into him, an arm going around his lanky shoulders. 

“No seriously Tetsu. That was nice.”

“T-Thanks.”

 

-

“Hey Tetsu, you don’t have to force yourself to wear that!”

“Aominecchi . . ?”

“Oh, it’s fine-”

“But look at the color! It’s way too girly.” He walked over and threw himself over the back of Kuroko. “I’d look better than that.”

“Dai-chan! What are you doing?”

“Replacing your sorry scarf, that’s what!”

“Aomine-”

“It’s fine, right?” He leaned over to lock eyes with the shorter man. “I’d look much better than that, anyway.”

“Mine-chin, that’s eno-”

“Dai-chan quit insulting my gift!”

Off to the side, Kise and Akashi looked on with slight giggles.  _ Giggles! _

Momoi’s expression was still slightly puckered, but nearly everyone else had broken down, an outbreak of easy smiles quickly spreading. This was them. This was them, easy and fun, relaxed and carefree. They were themselves when it was just the seven of them. That was how it was. That was how it was always meant to be. 

Tetsu reached up and properly wrapped Daiki’s arms around his neck and shoulders. “It’s fine.” That small smile flitted onto his face once more. It was more than fine. This was good.

 

-

Cool air met warm skin as soon as they exited the apartment. It wrapped around noses, immediately colored cheeks, made the breaths that puffed from their mouths appear as clear as day.

Kuroko was still laughing at something from earlier, a small breathy thing. He walked down the stairs side-by-side with Aomine, who stood with ungloved hands shoved deep into his coat pockets. 

They were both about a quarter mile from the apartment when they spoke again.

“Was that . . okay?”

“The party? Well it could’ve had a better host . .” Daiki glanced over and immediately started cackling upon seeing Tetsu’s unimpressed expression. “Kidding, kidding. Yeah, it was great.”

“I’m glad.”

“Oh? It was your party, though. Was it okay for you?”

“Yes. More than okay, actually.”

“Good. Good! Good . .” They walked a couple steps in silence. Above, the moon shone through the wisps of winter clouds, signifying the time as late. Only the presence of millions of lights making it look dim in comparison supported the evidence. They weren’t the first to leave, nor were they the last. Himuro would probably stay at Kagami’s for the night, and the same might could be said for Kise. 

“You know, I realized something, back in your match with Rakuzan.”

Tetsu let his gaze swivel over but otherwise stayed silent, waiting. It made Daiki slightly nervous.

“Uh, well, it’s just . .” He sucked a breath in, let it puff out in an endless swirl of white, quickly fading. “In our first match -our first high school match, that is- you never gave up.”

“Yes.”

He felt himself nearly trip, regaining balance just barely and pulling it off as a little leap to his step. “Y-Yeah, well. This might be kind of selfish, but one of your goals was to convert me to team play, right?”

“Yes.”

“And so I thought, um, that you had possibly chosen to not give up because that was what drove me over the brink in the first place . .” At that point they had come to a stop, though neither were fully aware of that. “Selfish, I know. But-”

“A part of it”, Tetsu admitted. “Not the full thing, no, but a part of it was.” He moved his gaze away. “And it’s not, for you to assume such. Selfish. What was selfish was me wasting any thought on you instead of Seirin.” The words stuck in the air for a couple moments before he realized when he said. “I-wait no, that’s not-”

“No, it’s fine”, Aomine followed, lips turning upward in a genuine smile. “I was a real piece of work, back then.”

Tetsu reached forward and lightly punched his chest. “You still are.” He paused, then, “In a good way, though.”

“Ah. Glad to hear it.”

“You realized, too, didn’t you? Momoi told me.”

“Ah, that damn Satsuki . .” He shook his head, clearing the thought. “Yeah, I did. I’ve started going to practice.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah. It’s . . nice.”

“Mm. We still won’t lose.”

“Aw shut up!” He bumped into him, but he was laughing. They both were.

This is how it was meant to be.

 

-

“Thank you again, Momoi-san.”

“It’s no problem!”

Her hands came out of her bag swiftly, thrusting the envelope in Tetsu’s face. “Here!”

His fingers worked around the opening as he smiled over at her. She peered just a little closer as he slid it open, almost as if waiting for something.

The picture was nice, a perfect memento of that day. Still, Momoi was close . .

“Flip it over”, she said, motioning with one hand. Her eyes were shining.

He nodded and did so, catching the words scrawled on the back as soon as he did.

_ Dai-chan said to say . . . _

 

-

“Give me back my Mai-chan!”

“Oh, so you did decide to show up!”

“That’s playing dirty and you know it.”

“Ah, maybe we should’ve used Tetsu-kun instead”, Momoi said, her lips puckering. 

Daiki turned to see her behind him. He immediately deadpanned. “Please tell me you’re not still on about this-”

“No no, it’s fine!” She turned away. “Just take the love of my life away from me, it’s all good.”

“Satsuki-”

“Oi, Aomine! Are you gonna practice or not?”

“What? Of course no-”

“Well then just stay and watch. And if you end up losing to Kagami in the end, oh well . .”

“Wha-? Hey! Hey come back here! Satsuki, hold this-”

“Ah, Dai-chan!”

He stormed off towards the court and she stood behind, laughing and holding his giant sweater loosely in her arms. Nah. There was no need to use Tetsu-kun as bait next time.

He -Aomine- was already a huge part of the team, whether he realized it or not. And he would always come through for them.

 

-

“So. How was practice.”

“Good. Just preparing for the Kanto qualifiers.”

“Oh yeah? Maybe we’ll get lucky and go up against each other in the first round.”

Tetsu scrunched his nose. “I hope not. I want you to at least play more than one game.”

“Are you saying I’ll lose?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Aomine barked out a laugh. “We’ll just have to see.”

“Mm.”

They reached the station and paused, glancing at the other. Finally, Aomine reached down and ruffled Tetsu’s hair, earning him a mild glare. “See you, Tetsu.”

“Ah, wait.”

“Hm?”

Tetsu rose himself up onto his toes, wrapped his arms loosely around Daiki’s neck. “Kiss me, before you go.”

Ah. He nodded. “Yeah.”

This was how it was meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Next part continues and ends at close to s3 ending, should be out soon-ish, depends on how fast i can finish the third season. (the rewatch, that is)


End file.
